The present invention relates to a lock arrangment for a door, particularly a motor vehicle door. More particularly the present invention relates to such a lock arrangement including a lock mechanism which is mounted in the door and includes a latching member which cooperates with a lock member fastened to a door column or post of the vehicle, a safety device, including a pivotal lever, associated with the lock mechanism, and an actuator for the safety device, with the end of the actuator facing the lock mechanism being releasably fastened to an area of the pivotal lever which is oriented at least approximately in the direction of installation of the lock mechanism in the door. Such a lock arrangement is disclosed in German Offenlegungsschrift (Published Patent Application) No. 2,153,707 which corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 3,844,595, issued Oct. 29th, 1974, to Helmut Meinow, the subject matter of which is incorporated herein by reference. It it the object of this known arrangement, as well as of the present invention, to provide a lock arrangement in which the lock mechanism in the door can be installed solely from the frontal face of the door, i.e., without the need for accessibility from the side. In other known lock arrangements it is necessary, particularly in order to produce a connection between the actuator for the safety device and the pivotal lever which is part of the safety device, to remove the interior lining of the door.
This problem is solved by the lock arrangement of the above-mentioned patent in that the connection between the actuator and the pivotal lever of the safety device is made releasable and is placed at a freely accessible location, and that furthermore the actuator is designed to permit establishment of the connection before attachment of the lock mechanism to the frontal face of the door. In detail, the known arrangement provides that the actuator includes an actuating rod which is pivotally connected with the safety device and which, once it has been connected with the safety device, can be threaded through an opening in the frontal face of the door and into the door.
Whereas the establishment of the connection of the actuator for the lock itself with the lock mechanism generally does not prove difficult even without lateral accessibility because this actuator can be made of any desired length in the form of a Bowden cable, the installation of the actuator for the safety device, particularly the connection between the two, is much more difficult. This is so because, as described above, the actuator for the safety device generally includes a rod-like member which in the known motor vehicle doors ends in a handle or knob directly below the window of the door and is mounted there.